In the Qingshi Guanbao, following the instructor's order, Zhao Xiaolou opened the fire door, pulled down the trigger and banged a row of gunshots, followed by bursts of smoke.
After firing the shot, Zhao Xiaolou did not dare to relax. He quickly cleaned the chamber and reloaded the gun. There were fixed-loading paper bullets, which was much easier to load. Just bite open the paper shell with your teeth and pour the medicine inside.
Wait for a set of actions to be completed.
Target reporting has already begun over there.
Zhao Xiaolou was a little nervous. He was originally an auxiliary soldier in Shenwu Town and was stationed in Dengzhou. Later, because of his good performance, he was added to Shence Town as a combat soldier and transferred to Qingshiguan, Boshan County, Qingzhou.
Qingshi Pass has a dangerous terrain and is known as the Qilu Xiongguan Pass. It is the throat of Qilu Pass.
At the southwest foot of Mount Lu, this is also a corner from the southwest of Qingzhou Prefecture that protrudes into Jinan Prefecture. Near Qingshiguan is also the source of the Zihe River, the largest river in Qingzhou Prefecture, and the source of the Xiaofu River in Jinan Prefecture.
After passing the pass, heading south is Tai'an Prefecture, where the Sima River, a tributary of the Wen River, also originates at the foot of the mountain.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the State of Qi built this place to protect Lu and Chu.
Build a pass on the commanding heights south of the valley mouth where the two peaks face each other, with a thin line of sky in the middle.
The ten-mile-long Guangou under the pass can only be passed by a wheelbarrow at its narrowest point. Although it is dangerous, it has always been an important traffic artery in Qilu.
Sometimes, traffic jams here can last for days because of overturning of wheelbarrows.
Shence Town is stationed in Qingzhou, one battalion is stationed in Boshan, one battalion is stationed in Qingshiguan, and one battalion is stationed in the county town.
Zhao Xiaolou's battalion is stationed at Qingshi Pass.
Because Tai'an and Jinan were still occupied by the Tatars, this place became a front line. The original main transportation route was blocked. Without the merchants and people coming and going, this place became a remote and quiet place.
There is no village in front, no store behind, and I am staying on the mountain, but my life is not easy.
Zhao Xiaolou even often regretted signing up to take the combat soldier exam. He thought that life would be easier in the combat camp, at least the pay would be much higher than in the auxiliary camp. However, when he came to the combat camp, he realized that life was not easy at all.
Even though it was clear that there were no enemies in front of the pass, their battalion officers trained their brothers every day, especially Zhao Canjun, who had the same surname. As a result, training people was like using animals.
Every day before dawn, the bed bugle is sounded in the camp.
Everyone must get up, fold their quilts, wash up, and then gather in the playground at the specified time.
Then came the morning jog in the slightly bright sky. Running on this mountain would take ten miles round trip. Those who could run would have cramps in their calves and break out in sweat.
Return to the camp to rest and have breakfast.
Those who run slowly every day are punished by cleaning toilets, carrying water, etc.
Zhao Xiaolou is an infantryman and a gunman.
There is training every morning. There is a lot of training content, and there is live ammunition training every day. At first, Zhao Xiaolou was very excited when he received the shotgun. When he started shooting live ammunition, his hands even shook with excitement.
But now, he was almost sick from shooting.
There are live ammunition exercises every day, but you can't fight randomly. The requirements are strict. If the training results are not up to standard, there will be a whole set of punishments, such as climbing over mountains and ridges, crawling in the mud, carrying gun boxes, carrying lead ingots...
"Zhao Xiaolou was shot twenty-six times!"
Hearing this target report, Zhao Xiaolou breathed a sigh of relief.
During each live-fire training session, they had to fire thirty shots. If they hit all thirty shots, they would be considered the best. They would also be able to enjoy extra rewards and extra meals. Although the reward was not much, it was still an honor.
Hitting twenty-five shots is considered second-class, and there will also be a small reward.
If you hit the target with less than twenty shots, you will be punished.
If you are shot less than ten times, you will be beaten.
Zhao Xiaolou's current results are the result of almost a year of training. Although it seems easy, it is actually very difficult.
Because the target is set outside the forty-one bow, one bow is five feet, which is about more than sixty meters.
At this distance, a person with poor eyesight cannot even see the target clearly.
It is too difficult to hit more than twenty shots after firing continuously.
There are also requirements for the speed of shooting, which can even be divided into standing shooting, squatting shooting, and even lying down shooting.
Anyway, when you join the army, you train them in different ways and often adjust the difficulty.
Sometimes the target is a circle, sometimes the target is a human figure, sometimes a scarecrow, sometimes a horse.
Anyway, it makes people suffer a lot.
"Stand in a T-step with both feet, straight, the front crotch lifts the back hip, the soles of the feet are flat, the front hand is holding the gun, the front elbows should be close, the front armor and shoulders are close to the waist, and the back hand is holding the handle of the gun close to the face."
"The back elbow is close to the waist, and the right eye is pointed at the star. After aiming at the bull's-eye and calming down, the two fingers are gently brought together to fire, the lead is drawn out, and the target is hit naturally. The shotgun is that simple. I've taught you.
After such a long time, even a monkey can hit more than twenty rounds."
"The imperial court provides you with so many match ropes, gunpowder, and lead for training every day, and you fucking treat me like this?
Look at your team, twelve people, what are you playing?
Not a single shot was fully shot, and the maximum number of shots hit was twenty-seven. Are you just dawdling?
If you want to dawdle, go back to your hometown and have your wife and dawdle around. This is the imperial camp of the Ming Dynasty, a divine strategy army given by the emperor, and it is not a place for you to dawdle around."
"Anyone who missed twenty shots today will be punished by carrying lead blocks and ten kilograms of molten lead bullets!"
"Washing the latrine and carrying water are all included."
"Anyone who hits more than twenty-five shots will get a piece of meat tonight and a silver penny as reward."
The imperial camp will provide the army with cast lead bullets, which are cast by melting lead on a large scale using the high-tower method. The construction is relatively simple. A tower more than ten feet high has a lead-melting furnace on the top.
Below is a large pool for catching lead bullets. During production, the lead ingots were melted on the top of the tower, and then the molten lead was poured directly from a high place. The molten lead would take on a spherical shape in the middle of the night and fall rapidly.
Solidifies into a spherical lead bullet.
This is a small shotgun.
The lead bullets used in muskets are made into large lead bullets by the warm water slope method.
However, the musketeers consume a large amount of lead bullets, so each musketeer is usually issued a clamp-shaped mold for hand-made lead bullets, which is about the length of a palm and weighs about three taels. Sometimes a piece of lead is directly given to the soldiers.
Lead is relatively soft and has a low melting point. As long as you have a mold, you can process it yourself anytime and anywhere.
Anyway, lead bullets don’t need to be too neat, and wrapping them with gaskets doesn’t affect their use.
Lead bullets that you process yourself are generally better.
Of course, melting and processing ten pounds of lead bullets around a fire is not an easy job, and those who can do it will be very exhausted.
Zhao Xiaolou secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
Fortunately, he shot twenty-six rounds and was rewarded with a silver dime, as well as a big piece of fat meat.
Thinking of fat meat makes me feel a little hungry.
Shooting thirty guns is not easy. You have to quickly reload and aim within the specified time, over and over again, and you are very nervous. It really consumes your energy and strength.
"Disband!"
Zhao Shenjun scolded everyone with a dark face before finally announcing the disbandment.
Everyone didn't dare to take a breath, so they hurriedly took a breath.
Back in the barracks, a group of people sat there and began to complain involuntarily.
"Although this shotgun was made by the No. 1 musket factory of the Royal Ordnance Bureau of Shaofu Jian, it is relatively sophisticated, but the requirement of 40 bows, 30 far shots, and 20 hits is still too strict."
"That is, I heard that the Tatar shotgunners are required to be at most thirty steps away, and if they hit five shots, they will be rewarded. And if they are forty steps away, and if they fire ten shots every time, they will be rewarded. If
If you can hit eight shots, it is said that you can be rewarded with three taels of silver."
"I've also heard that the Tatar shotgun soldiers train for at most a hundred days a year and fire five shots every day."
"We are just like training our son. We train every day, practice arrays, and train coordination on foot and cavalry. We also have to fire thirty rounds of live ammunition every day. Even if the bow is forty, at least thirty will hit twenty. This requirement is too high."
Today there were twelve members of Zhao Xiaolou's team, including the captain, deputy, and a corps leader. He fired more than twenty-five shots, and the other eight people all fired less than twenty shots. In the end, they were all punished as toilet cleaners and water carriers.
To carry water, you have to carry it up from a spring at the foot of the mountain, and your legs will cramp even if you carry a load.
Everyone was complaining there, saying that even though they were musketeers, the demands of the Tatar soldiers were not so high.
Captain Li Baoquan listened to their talk becoming more and more outrageous. He took out a pack of cigarettes and spread them around, "Don't say a few words. If you have this skill, why not think about how to shoot a good gun? You haven't seen Tatar shotguns before."
, can you compare with our shotgun?
Our shotgun was made by the No. 1 Gun Factory of the Royal Ordnance Bureau. It is a high-quality product made in the third year of Shaotian. This shotgun is so sophisticated. Is it too much to shoot forty paces? Besides, how many rounds of live ammunition do we shoot every day? After so much practice.
No matter how long you spend on gunpowder, if you still miss a dead target that won't move, how can you still have combat effectiveness on the battlefield?"
"The instructors always say that if you sweat more during training, you will bleed less during war. Let's put this energy into training. You can learn from Zhao Xiaolou. He used to be an auxiliary soldier. When he came to our team, he didn't have any bullets.
I tried it, but I just went from being the worst in gun skills to being among the top ones now.
Today I get another silver reward, and I can also add a big piece of meat. Isn’t this meat delicious? With the silver reward, won’t it be delicious to buy cigarettes?”
"Okay, everyone, cheer up and go eat first."
Zhao Xiaolou put the cigarette given by the captain behind his ear. He also has a craving for cigarettes now, but he is more controlled and does not dare to smoke more. Cigarettes are still quite expensive.
Sure enough, a big piece of meat was added to the dinner, a thick piece of fat meat, as big as a palm, cooked until it was soft and rotten, and when you took a bite, the corners of your mouth were filled with oil, and it was very fragrant.
Not to mention how delicious it is when mixed with rice.
The other eight people in the team could only eat brown rice with pumpkin today. It was obvious that everyone was quite envious of him.
After the meal, everyone washed the dishes and returned to the barracks together.
It wasn't dark yet and it was very hot in the barracks, so everyone moved the small benches outside the door together.
"Everyone, sit down and get ready for class."
Deputy Liu brought out a small board and prepared for class.
Zhao Xiaolou likes the cultural class every night very much. He listens carefully every time. He feels that this is a rare opportunity, unlike a few people in the team who get distracted every time in class.
The deputy of the team is a cultural person. It is said that he has studied for several years, but he has not even passed the exam for young students, but he is more than enough to teach them.
"Vice Captain Liu, what are you teaching today?"
"Today, I will teach you the first line, Grandpa Yue's "Manjianghong". I will sing it to you first, and then write it on it to teach you how to recognize it."
"When I am so angry, I lean on the railing, and the rain stops."
Team Vice President Liu is from Shandong. He started singing directly and it sounded pretty good. Everyone was interested and sang along.
Zhao Xiaolou sang along very seriously. After training every day, there would be cultural classes in the evening, which talked about loyalty to the emperor and patriotism, as well as benevolence, filial piety, etiquette and righteousness. From the laws of the Ming Dynasty to the emperor's edicts, he even sometimes led everyone to read newspapers and talk about the news.
, he will also organize everyone to talk about their past experiences, remember the hardships and remember the sweetness, and teach everyone how to read and write their own names, etc. He likes these very much.
After singing, Deputy Liu began to write the lyrics on the board to teach everyone how to read them.
Zhao Xiaolou took out his cigarette and gave it to everyone else. Then he lit one for himself and enjoyed himself while smoking and reading.
"You said that we stay in this useless place every day. Apart from training, we are training. It is not reassuring to be free at night. What kind of work do we have to learn? We are soldiers, when can we go to the battlefield to fight?
Ah, didn't we say we were going to fight against Jinan? Why is there no movement? If this continues, I will go crazy." Zhang Tiezhu in the team is a rough man, and he feels that the words on the board are all the same, and he can't tell the difference at all.
, I was irritated while studying and complained again and again.
Captain Liu had already gotten used to it and ignored him.
Captain Li Baoquan was also studying calligraphy very seriously, and turned to glare at Zhang Tiezhu, "You are so fucking illiterate, Captain Liu even confiscated your tuition fees to teach you how to read for free, and you are still complaining. That is to say, in our imperial army,
Camp, you have such an opportunity to study and read for free. If you put it elsewhere, you would be paid generously and taught you how to read?"
"When there's a war, there's always a time for a war. It's just that we haven't had the chance yet. Sit down for me, and I'll beat you up if you make any noise."
Zhang Tiezhu is tall and thick, and he usually looks a bit unruly. Captain Liu looked down on him, but when Li Baoquan spoke, he immediately became honest, because Captain Li was really good at beating him when he got angry, and his fists were not as big as casseroles.
Kidding.
"Okay, Lao Liu, go ahead. Does this have anything to do with being so angry that you become a beauty with Wu Sangui, and for Chen Yuanyuan's rebellion against Li Zicheng?" Li Baoquan said with a chuckle.
A group of people immediately became energetic and said, "Liu Captain, tell us again about Wu Sangui's rage for a beauty. We didn't even finish it last time."
"That's right, is Chen Yuanyuan still here?"
"Are you really that beautiful?"
After three years in the army, a sow competed with Diao Chan.
After staying in this mountain all day, when I mention women, I get all excited and my eyes light up.